How important is the Video Card (GPU) when using Phocus?

[Chris Gahran]

I'm using mid-2010, 21.5 inch iMacs on location so I can run OSX 10.6 which allows me to run Rosetta. Rosetta allows me to use FlexColor on the Intel iMacs. I believe these 2010 iMacs, as well as other iMacs made in different years, tend to have their Video Card fail.

I have two identical refurbished 21.5 inch mid-2010 iMacs purchased from Apple in Nov 2011. iMac #1 recently had its Video Card fail. The Apple Store was able to fix the iMac but unfortunately replaced the bad Video Card with a new original Video Card. I asked Apple if I could expect that identical Video Card to fail in four years. They said all computers are different but my iMac #2 is starting to exhibit the same behavior that preceded the failure of iMac #1. After checking online it appears video card failures are common in iMacs.

Since iMac #1 was being repaired I used iMac #2 on a two day location photo shoot. Here's the problem: Phocus (2.6.6) crashed about eight times over the two day photo session. Until now, I have rarely had Phocus crash.

It's my understanding Phocus uses the GPU for rendering images so I believe the slowly failing video card in iMac#2 was the cause of the Phocus crashes because I have never experienced so many "spinning beach balls" then crashes when using Phocus.

The iMacs have ATI Radeon HD 5670 Video cards with 512 MB of of VRAM. The iMacs are 3.6Ghz i5 with 4GB of RAM. (I can increase the RAM to 12GB but I doubt that will help.) I checked with Hasselblad before I bought the iMacs and I was told they would work well with Phocus. I'm running Phocus 2.6.6 which is a few years old.

Before the Video Card failure iMac #1 had been out on dozens of location shoot without problems.

I'm prone to believe the crashes I encountered with iMac #2 were the result of the slowly failing GPU. How important is the GPU to Phocus? Thanks...

Chris

[jerome_m]

If your GPU is slowly failing, the most likely reason is that it runs too hot. Therefore the answer to your question is probably to use a program or widget like iStat and check the temperature of the various sensors before and after having run Phocus.

[Dustbak]

Phocus relies very heavily on the GPU. Yes, the GPU is very important to it. Especially when you tend to look a lot at 100% and make adjustments in Phocus. It uses the GPU to redraw your image with the changes you made.

[Chris Gahran]

Jerome,

A search for "iStat" leads to "http://www.islayer.net" which then redirects to advertising sites. Can you point me to another program? In the interim I'll do a Google search

Thanks...

Chris

[Chris Gahran]

Found "iStat Pro" on CNET.

[Chris Gahran]

Just found a program called "smcFanControl" at http://www.eidac.de/.

This software allows you to set the speed of the fans in your Mac. I'm running some tests with the fans at 150% of Apple's default speed. Heat caused failure of the video card seems to be common problem with iMacs.

Chris